Word to the Wise
Thursday, April 5, 2007 - Holy Thursday
[Exodus 12:1-8, 11-14; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26; John 13:1-15]I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do.
Jesus' words follow his washing of the feet of the disciples. Similar words follow St. Paul's recounting of Jesus' gift of his body and blood: Do this in remembrance of me. The passage from Exodus ends with the statement: This day shall be a memorial feast for you, which all your generations shall celebrate with pilgrimage to the Lord, as a perpetual institution. The "Last Supper" covers a lot of theology and memory! The context for it was the celebration of the Passover meal commanded in Exodus. But the meaning of the event changed considerably through Jesus' actions. His washing of the feet of the disciples (mentioned only in the Gospel of John) establishes a model of service with a command as strong as that connected with the command to eat his body and drink his blood (not mentioned in the Last Supper account in John but clearly mentioned in Chapter Six of the gospel.) The connection between love of God and love of neighbor is made clear in the scripture for this day. We cannot claim to have celebrated the Eucharist in its full integrity if we do not care for one another as disciples of Jesus. Jesus has given us a model that encompasses all of Christian life, not simply a personal relationship with him. The Second Vatican Council, in the document on the liturgy, teaches that Christ is truly present in the assembly, in the proclamation of the word and in the celebrant, even if his presence in the form of bread and wine as his body and blood is a "unique" presence. Pope Paul VI included in his teaching that Christ is also truly present in the faces of the poor. In short, we celebrate more this evening than the establishment of the Sacrament of the Eucharist. We celebrate the entire life and ministry of Jesus which we can incarnate in our "washing of one another's feet" and model in receiving "communion." We cannot be in communion with the Lord if we are unable to be in communion with one another (cf. 1 John 4:20). This is why St. Paul exhorts everyone to examine themselves to determine if they are approaching the bread and the cup worthily.(1 Cor. 11:28). Holy Thursday celebrates not only Jesus' gift of himself to us ("This is my body!") but the gift of Christ in one another ("If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another's feet.") AMEN
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